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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Fri Jun 6, 2003 7:41 am
Subject: Different Kinds of Love

http://www.sulekha.com/chpost.asp...ilosophy&show=0&cid=62249

Different Kinds of Love

When my step-son was eight years old, he went through a phase where
he would frequently ask me: "Who do you love THE MOST: me, my sister,
mommy, the dog or the cat."

Sometimes I would tease him and say, "Why, the CAT of course!"

But one day I explained, "One really cannot ask such a question
fairly, because love is not simply one, varying only in degrees, and
measurable on a scale, as weight or temperature or distance are
measurable."

He used to ask his mother "HOW much do you love me?", and she would
answer "Google, google, google, infinitizer, infinitizer!"

Sometimes, even the infinite is inadequate for us to express what we
desire, and infinity must be enlarged and multiplied as an image of
infinity.

We love different people and things and qualities and ideas in
different manners and for different reasons.

The love of a child for a parent is undoubtedly quite different from
the love of a parent for the child. The child has only ONE mother
and ONE father, but a parent may have many children.

The love of many for the one is necessarily very different from the
love of one for the many.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCINDIA/GITA9.HTM

The Gita says, "I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none
dear. But those who worship me with discipline dwell in me and I too
in them."

http://www.vedicstore.com/chapter9.html

I am the Self to all beings; to Me there is none hateful, none dear.
But those who worship Me with devotion are in Me and I am also in
them. (9.29)

We see in this verse a simultaneous equanimity, impartiality and yet
a fondness and intimacy and uniqueness.

The Hasidic Jews have a saying:

"God gives each of us a coat with two pockets. In the one is a slip
of paper on which is written 'the entire universe is created
especially for me', and in the other pocket is a slip of paper which
is written 'I am merely dust and ashes.' As we go through life, we
periodically resort to the wisdom of both pockets as the occasion
necessitates."

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